Nanovoid nucleation by vacancy aggregation and vacancy-cluster coarsening in high-purity metallic single crystals

A numerical model to estimate critical times required for nanovoid nucleation in high-purity aluminum single crystals subjected to shock loading is presented. We regard a nanovoid to be nucleated when it attains a size sufficient for subsequent growth by dislocation-mediated plasticity. Nucleation is assumed to proceed by means of diffusion-mediated vacancy aggregation and subsequent vacancy cluster coarsening. Nucleation times are computed by a combination of lattice kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and simple estimates of nanovoid cavitation pressures and vacancy concentrations. The domain of validity of the model is established by considering rate-limiting physical processes and theoretical strength limits. The computed nucleation times are compared to experiments suggesting that vacancy aggregation and cluster coarsening are feasible mechanisms of nanovoid nucleation in a specific subdomain of the pressure-strain rate-temperature space.